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Mt. Pleasant man wins 2024 Corvette in nationwide sweepstakes
Brian Shelman entered the Hy-Vee 2024 Corvette Giveaway alongside others in the Midwestern and Southwestern United States
Southeast Iowa Union offers audio versions of articles using Instaread. Some words may be mispronounced.
MT. PLEASANT — Brian Shelman and his family gathered outside Mt. Pleasant Hy-Vee the afternoon of Tuesday, Oct. 29 to collect a brand-new 2024 Corvette Stingray which he won through a Hy-Vee giveaway.
“It's kind of crazy,” Brian said. “It's one of those deals where you keep entering the contest just because. You think ‘I’m not gonna win, but I’ll just do it.’”
Between this year and last, Hy-Vee gave away six vehicles through their Corvette Giveaway Sweepstakes before Brian won big. He was the first winner to come from Hy-Vee’s home state of Iowa. Previous winners came from Kentucky, Texas, Florida, and Minnesota.
Brian explained that he entered the contest as he watched Indy Car races on television. Whenever a QR Code for the contest popped up on the screen, he quickly scanned it. The QR code then took him to a Hy-Vee website where he would enter his name, email, and address.
“It couldn't happen to a nicer person,” Brian’s wife Kathy Shelman said. “I used to make fun of him for jumping off the couch and scanning the QR code, but guess I'll never make fun of him for doing that.”
When Brian first got the phone call and email informing him that he won a trip to go to the Indy Car race in Nashville, he immediately called his wife to let her know.
“I was at school volunteering, and he said, ‘Hey, we’re going to Nashville,’” Kathy recalled. “I was like, there’s no way, because we were just talking about what we were going to do when we won it, you know, like you do with the lottery. I told him he was a liar!”
After Brian told her to check her email, she did, and she was pleasantly surprised to see the confirmation.
While winning a four-night trip for two to Nashville was a more than adequate prize for the Shelmans, things just got better as Brian was the first of three grand prize finalists to pick a key fob and attempt to start the car at the racetrack.
“So, I looked in the box, and I picked one fob and decided to put it back, and grabbed another fob and it started the car,” Brain recounted. “So, the other two people didn't even get to do anything. They didn't sit in the car, even get to try to start it or anything.”
Jan and Randy Shelman, Brian’s brother and sister-in-law, couldn’t have imagined he would actually win the Corvette.
“He was confident, though,” Randy said. “He kept saying he was going to win.”
Brian initially started the car in Nashville on Oct. 15, but had to wait until Tuesday, Oct. 29 to receive it. During those weeks of waiting for the car to arrive, Kathy directed her excited energy to the productive pastime of watching YouTube videos to familiarize herself with the vehicle.
“People were asking us what is the trim? What is the level?” Kathy Shelman said. “And we’re like, ‘we don’t know.’ We sat in it for like 30 seconds.”
Upon receipt of the vehicle, all the Shelmans took turns inspecting the $100,000-plus new car and reading about all the features. The Torch Red 2024 Corvette Stingray 3LT features an Adrenaline Red dipped interior, 6.2L V-8 DI engine, and eight-speed dual clutch transmission. This fully loaded sports car comes with a Bose speaker audio system, remote start, wireless phone projection, heated and cooled seats, heated steering wheel, headed mirrors, driving assistance technology and a power retractable hardtop.
The car even came with a set of premium leather weekend travel bags that fit perfectly in the trunk for weekend get always, which the Shelmans eagerly look forward to enjoying. With any luck, the nice weather will stick around long enough for that to happen before snow begins to fall.
Comments: AnnaMarie.Kruse@southeastiowaunion.com
